A Waterfront Project Opens Up The Debate About the Soul Of A City

QUOTE OF THE DAY  from the Project for Public Spaces: "A waterfront project opens up the debate about the soul of a city for all to see." (http://www.pps.org/info/getinvolved/making_places/waterfronts_overview)

Making the transition from working waterfront to public gathering place is full of challenges, be it providing public access or identifying the activities best suited to a particular community and place. Today, more and more cities and towns are boldly taking on these challenges.

Seizing the Opportunity of Urban Waterfronts
A waterfront project for a town resembles a blank canvas for an artist. Anything is possible, including a masterpiece. Because it is so central to the life of that community, representing so many competing claims about its history and where it is now headed, there's an opportunity for a breakthrough in how people in that place think of themselves. Such a project raises questions about what a city is and what it needs most. It opens up the debate about the soul of a city for all to see. Will the city stay on the familiar course of standard-issue condos, office towers and road construction, or will it boldly assert community values--and maintain the essential publicness of the waterfront--by creating a gathering spot that attracts and inspires us?

Car Squatting

Make Paradise, Tear Down a Parking Lot
A massive recall on land illegally given to automobiles
Here's an interesting article from the Project for Public Spaces, link HERE.

Cars illegally occupy prime real estate in Atlanta.
It was recently discovered that cars have been squatting on some of the most valuable land in America—sometimes for as long as seventy years. The land will now be returned to the American public.

Officials at the International Downtown Association discovered that landmark legislation from the 1930s has been misinterpreted since the day it was signed into law. Congress unanimously approved the 1937 Urban Improvement Act, which states that free parking in towns and cities must be taxed at an annual rate of 10 percent of estimated real estate value. But a General Motors lobbyist impersonating a Commerce Department official altered the document so that it appeared to offer tax breaks to businesses that provide free parking to their customers and employees.

Calculating that parking lot operators and shopping malls now owe the American people a staggering $986 billion in back taxes, the Treasury department decided it would be easier and more compassionate for parking lots to be turned over to local governments to create thousands of new parks, squares, public spaces and civic institutions.

The Commons Movement

Commons movement: A growing social and political movement that believes the commons is a crucial sector of the economy and society and useful prism for talking about resources that should be shared. The commons offers not only an affirmative vision of a more equitable, eco-friendly society: it also serves as a countervailing force to keep excesses of the market and government sectors in check. Some speak of an emerging commons paradigm as a new way of looking at the world, one that opens up the competitive, mechanistic, profit-centric mindset that has ruled Western civilization since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, with a more humanistic, environmentally aware and holistic world view. A wider appreciation for the enduring importance of the commons has developed over the last eight years, especially among people deeply involved in the politics of water issues, the internet, the over commercialization of culture and public spaces. This world view is now reaching into many other arenas, including economics, the environment, social justice and numerous citizens movements around the world.